A state hospital at Ward's Island in New York houses 7,236 patients into the space for 4,885 due to lack of funds. Interiors of the building shows people seated in chairs. Patients lying on beds in a crowded room. Some patients seated on mattresses on the floor.

Exterior view of Pan American Union Building in Washington DC, with a 1930s Packard four door sedan-limousine parked in front. A man entering the building. Jefferson Caffery, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, seated in an office and reviewing paperwork. Narrator describes the creation of the Good Neighbor Fleet (where Moore-McCormack Lines, also called Mooremack, was contracted to run three ocean liners of the U.S. Maritime Commission between the USA and South America, called the Good Neighbor Fleet.) Close up picture of brochure advertising the new fleet, and picturing the three ships (The California, Virginia and Pennsylvania from the former Panama Pacific Line, with new names Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina.) Next scene shows 3 men meeting (this is possibly Moore-McCormack Lines founder Albert V. Moore, on right, seated at a table and in discussion, possibly with U.S. Maritime officials. Man on left is possibly Emmet McCormack.) Passengers aboard liner SS Brazil as it departs port. Crowd on docks wave at the ship leaving New York harbor. View from on board SS Brazil in New York Harbor as a nearby tug boat sprays water. Skyline and skyscrapers of New York City's Manhattan Island seen in background. Map of South America showing route of a Good Neighbor ship. Good Neighbor Fleet ships at a harbor in South America. U.S. State Department diplomats in South America beside one of the ships as fleet service is inaugurated. Exterior view of Pan American Union building and its sign in Washington DC (later called the building of the Organization of American States). President Ortiz of Argentina, President Alfredo Baldomir of Uruguay, and President Vargas of Brazil are shown in discussion with various officials.

Documentary depicts the end of the 1920s good times in the U.S., leading into the Great Depression. Mildred Unger, age 10, performs a wing walker charleston dance while out on the wing of a JN-4 "Jenny" airplane in flight over Los Angeles in 1926.Four girls dancing on the top of a building higher than those around it, in Boston, Massachusetts. Amusement park patrons riding a roller coaster. People out driving through a park in their automobiles. Patrons enjoying themselves at the Steeplechase amusement park in Coney Island, New York. A crane piling old cars in a heap at a junk yard. But following the Wall Street crash of 1929, conditions change in America. Group of people receiving food assistance in a city. A man, woman, and baby, in a tent (probably migrant workers). The famous 1936 photo, "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange, of migrant worker, Florence Owens Thompson, with two of her children in California. Men receiving food from a city soup kitchen. Dejected unemployed men.

Ground and aerial views during construction of the Miller Highway on the west side of Manhattan Island in New York, United States. It was named after Julius Miller, the President of New York's Manhattan Borough from 1922 to 1930. It was also known as the West Side Elevated Highway or the West Side Highway. It was the first elevated highway in the United States. The elevated highway under construction. Men work on the highway. Sections also designated NY Routes 9A and NY 27A. The Miller Highway was shut down in 1973 and largely dismantled in 1989.

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) soldiers and officers march in New York for Memorial Day parade, together with veterans of World War 1 and other American conflicts. Elevated view of Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park on Manhattan Island, decorated in patriotic bunting. Hudson River visible in background. View changes to parade route immediately beside the monument in Riverside Park. Marchers carry U.S. flags in hands. Ground level shot captures boots and lower legs only marching along. Veterans of World War 1, some missing limbs and using crutches, march in the parade. Also seen are National Guard units in uniform. Elderly veterans of the American Civil War are seen in the reviewing stands. An honor guard in German Army uniforms passes with three uniformed German soldiers carrying the French flag, American flag, and Imperial German War flag (Reichskriegsflagge or Empire War Flag, flown by some German nationalists in the 1920s and 1930s in protest of the Weimar Republic). American Civil War veterans seen marching together in the parade, arms linked.

Clear aerial views of midtown and lower Manhattan, New York City 1930, but with smoke coming from Hudson River pier of New York Harbor where the North German Lloyd liner Munchen (sometimes Muenchen or München) is seen on fire, shortly after docking in New York after the voyage from Bremen, Germany. Ship emits smoke and fire at the pier. Firefighters spray water to extinguish fire. Views of the piers and slips and dock areas on the Hudson River at New York City and close up views of the firefighters battling the blaze on the Muenchen. The ship subsequently sank at dock. She was raised later in 1930, repaired in dry dock, and returned to service under the new name SS General von Steuben. The ship was sunk in 1945 by the S-13 submarine of the Soviet Union.